{"id":35821,"date":"2017-11-07T13:26:16","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T18:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=35821"},"modified":"2017-11-07T13:26:16","modified_gmt":"2017-11-07T18:26:16","slug":"the-fakes-of-life-and-gullibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=35821","title":{"rendered":"The Fakes of Life and gullibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Silicon Valley Can\u2019t Destroy Democracy Without Our Help – The New York Times<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

In this op for the New York Times, Emily Parker<\/a> bluntly lays out my central concern about sales pitches.<\/p>\n

I’m using “sales pitches” as a sort of generic term for anything and anyone who tries to sell us something, sell us a politician or a judge or an Rx medication for a physical problem which may not even exist and\/or we probably don’t have.<\/p>\n

Or, say, an adverse sales pitch–to use a colossally understated adjective–smearing a politician or a newspaper.<\/p>\n

Fakery. Fakery and lies.<\/p>\n

Here are a couple of excerpts which clearly make Ms. Parker’s point. Which is: we may be getting pounded by lies on social media but why are people believing them<\/em>? And why are people so gullible they’ll vote based on these lies?<\/p>\n

So don’t blame Facebook or Twitter for it. Because:<\/p>\n

…Facebook and Twitter didn\u2019t force users to share misinformation. Are Americans so easily duped? Or more alarming, did they simply believe what they wanted to believe?<\/em><\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

…it\u2019s not Twitter that is making Mr. Trump go viral; it\u2019s Twitter\u2019s users. They include all the citizens and journalists who follow, retweet and reply to Mr. Trump \u2014 even when we do so out of shock or outrage or because his statements have news value. If it weren\u2019t for all of us, the president would be shouting into a void.<\/em><\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

A couple of years ago, I was part of a team that tried that very experiment <\/em>[trying to get social media users to eat their vegetables, rather than pigging out on candy]. We ran a Silicon Valley start-up called Parlio, which was later acquired by Quora<\/a>. Parlio aimed to be a social media platform for civil debate. But what we discovered<\/a> was that people loved the idea of reasoned debate, then decided that those debates took too much time. Thoughtful content was also less likely to go viral, and many users are addicted to the sugar rush of virality. So while people liked the idea of eating their vegetables, they still gravitated to Twitter\u2019s candy aisle.<\/em><\/p>\n

Social media platforms magnify our bad habits, even encourage them, but they don\u2019t create them. Silicon Valley isn\u2019t destroying democracy \u2014 only we can do that.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: Silicon Valley Can\u2019t Destroy Democracy Without Our Help – The New York Times In this op for the New York Times, Emily Parker bluntly lays out my central concern about sales pitches. I’m using “sales pitches” as a sort … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1175],"tags":[2450,2105,1182,2451,2453,2452,2449,2454,1183],"class_list":["post-35821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-facts-of-life","tag-emily-parker","tag-facebook","tag-fake-news","tag-parlio","tag-political-smear-campaigns","tag-quora","tag-silicon-valley","tag-social-media-influencing-elections","tag-twitter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t